Hitherto, air-conditioning apparatuses have employed improvements in the shapes of their air outlets or the configurations of their air-passage walls near the air outlets or by providing wind vanes at the air outlets so that dewing near the air outlets of the air-conditioning apparatuses is prevented, the sensation of airflow experienced by users is reduced, or, in the case of a ceiling-concealed air-conditioning apparatus, smudging on the ceiling is suppressed.
Such known air-conditioning apparatuses include an air-conditioning apparatus including passage-wall members that are provided on passage walls at an air outlet and enable change in the direction of blown air by undergoing warpage (see Patent Literature 1, for example). The air-conditioning apparatus disclosed by Patent Literature 1 aims to supply the flow of blown air to an area wider in the horizontal direction by increasing, in the span direction, the degree of expansion of the flow of blown air at the air outlet. To achieve this, a configuration is disclosed in which upper and lower passage-wall members include a specific region, respectively, where the distance between the upper and lower passage-wall members is gradually reduced from the upstream side toward the downstream side of blown air. The upper and lower passage-wall members are warped such that the width of the specific regions gradually increases from the upstream side toward the downstream side in the blowing direction.
Another exemplary apparatus includes air-guiding portions that guide air blown from rectangular air outlets toward the ceiling. The air-guiding portions each have a step blocking a portion of the air at a terminal end thereof. The height of the step is large at two widthwise ends of the air outlet and is gradually reduced toward the center (see Patent Literature 2, for example).